Question

I’m currently working on creating a website that needs to access the text stored in a text file and parse it into a data structure. I would like to use a javascript function or an html tag to include or call the file so that I can parse it. However, I can’t seem to find a good way to do it. Any suggestions?

I’m not sure how to be more specific, but perhaps some pseudocode might help. Current code would be along these lines:

mylist = new Array();

function myfunc()
{
    var str = [get information from website];
    mylist.push(str);
}

That is, if the website has the following text:

"<tag attr=str attr=str>text</tag>"

The newest (or last) element of mylist would be "<tag attr=str attr=str>text</tag>".

Thanks!

edit: Thanks for the quick responses. I was trying to steer away from jquery (actually, I’m implementing angular in the site), but I was trying to use a native javascript method as opposed to a library. Judging from the responses, there isn’t one. Thanks for your help!

Answer 1

You should use the XHR Object, aka the “AJAX” method.

Here’s an overview as to how to start using it.

Here’s an excerpt:

function makeRequest(url, callback) {
  if (window.XMLHttpRequest) { // Mozilla, Safari, ...
    httpRequest = new XMLHttpRequest();
  }
  //i'd omit this if I don't support older browsers
  else if (window.ActiveXObject) { // IE
    try {
      httpRequest = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP");
    } catch (e) {
      try {
        httpRequest = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
      } catch (e) {}
    }
  }
  if (!httpRequest) {
    alert('Giving up :( Cannot create an XMLHTTP instance');
    return false;
  }
  httpRequest.onreadystatechange = function () {
    if (httpRequest.readyState === 4 && httpRequest.status === 200) {
      callback(httpRequest.responseText);
    } else {
      alert('There was a problem with the request.');
    }
  }
  httpRequest.open('GET', url);
  httpRequest.send();
}
//using
makeRequest('path/to/your/file', function (contents) {
  myList.push(contents);
});